Beyond the Limit-Experience: French Poetry of the Deportation 1940-1945 (review)

Gary D. Mole's study examines a neglected corpus of texts: French-language poetry composed between 1940 and 1945 by those interned in prisons or Nazi concentration camps. As Mole rightly asserts, this body of writing has rarely been the subject of critical inquiry, often overshadowed by the work of poets of the Resistance. This study, therefore, has a two-fold function: to challenge the invisibility and analytical assumptions surrounding such work and to engage in a detailed examination of the poems themselves as cultural responses to such extreme experiences. Mole acknowledges early on in his study that his research has had to negotiate some delicate issues, particularly the view that to analyse such poetry as an aesthetic form is somehow to betray the spirit of the creative endeavour. He makes a convincing case for looking beyond the 'documentary' value of such work (which events, subjects, themes, experiences are represented) towards the poetic forms, language and register of such texts. These poems are, for Mole, the product of 'an observing subjective consciousness' (p. 84), whose choice of aesthetic form is a crucial aspect in understanding how individuals deportees came to retain a sense of human dignity at moments of the greatest suffering and horror. Mole quotes extensively from a range of mostly amateur poets, whose work is discussed in English translation. Some show great sophistication in their use of the poetic form (Micheline Maurel, Maurice Honel), whilst others produce one or two poems and then vanish from the literary record. Mole's approach is both contextual and textual; he provides chapters that outline the conditions of prison and camp life for French deportees and the main themes and experiences that generated poetic responses. Yet he also provides accomplished analyses of the 'poetics of resistance', focusing on literary prototypes, formal innovation and the intertextual references of the more culturally aware poets. Overall, the study undertakes an important task: to reassess a body of work (over 250 poems) that has generally been marginalized by the literary establishment. Mole's sensitive and expert handling of his poetic corpus opens up another critical frame on French literary representations of the Second World War.